DURHAM City’s plastic pitch came up trumps as Lee Collings side beat Bamber Bridge 3-2 to close the gap on leaders AFC Halifax Town to five points with seven games in hand.

Durham’s game was the only one in senior non-league football in the region to survive the wintry weather, and one of only two to go ahead in the UniBond First Division North.

It allowed City, who had played fewer games than anyone in the league, to get a game back on their rivals, and they remain the only unbeaten side in the competition.

But Collings’ men made hard work of a spirited Bamber Bridge outfit, who created a host of chances but were undone by a superb display from stand-in keeper Adam Vout and the woodwork.

Only three or four Durham players put in a commendable shift and the Northern League champions were fortunate to pick up maximum points as a five-goal thriller ended in a blizzard.

Collings said: “I’m absolutely delighted we’ve won the game because for the most part we didn’t play very well, and we were defensively poor again.”

“Because we beat them 5-0 at their place, when it could have been ten, too many players thought we just had to turn up to complete another double.

“We were fortunate to be level at half-time and I absolutely blasted the players in the dressing room during the interval, which had the desired effect.

“We pelted Bamber Bridge for 20 minutes and got the important third goal, but they then came back at us and it was good to hear the final whistle.”

A bizarre feature of the first half was three own goals – all from central defenders – with City’s Ian Dixon getting the ball rolling after nine minutes.

Two goals in a minute midway through the half saw Durham, whose game at Curzon Ashton tonight is in doubt, turn the tables with Stewart Morris firing home the equaliser from the edge of the box.

Another Calvin Smith cross then saw the whippet-quick Gavin Cogdon’s goalbound shot turned into his own net by Colin McAllister.

The comic capers continued when Richard Smith glanced a header from Michael Mason’s free kick past a stranded Vout.

Good work from Cogdon set up Morris’s winner on the hour but the visitors, like Durham had been earlier, were denied a stonewall penalty before striker Graeme Mitchell headed against the bar late on with the impressive Vout beaten.